The YEP spoke with Dr William Rhys Jones, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead at the Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders in Leeds, as part of our series to mark Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

The Leeds Community Treatment Service, run by Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, launched in 2013.

DrWilliam Rhys Jones, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead at the Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders.

It is staffed by a wide-ranging team, including medics, psychiatrists, dietitians, therapists, health support workers and nurses.

Dr Jones said it created a “half-way house” between weekly outpatient and inpatient services.

The alternatives before the service was launched was either a stay on the ward, or one weekly hour-long session.

He said: “The community service has been a huge success for patients, and in terms of freeing up beds.

”There is an average three-year wait (according to the charity Beat) before people get specialist treatment for eating disorders and that is unacceptable.

“You would not accept that for things like cancer or even diabetes.”

Latest figures from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the services, show that there has been at least a 30 per cent fall in the number of hospital beds occupied by eating disorders patients since the community service was introduced.

Following its success, plans are also now in the pipeline to expand the service across the region.